Dangers Of Nail Biting – Scared Straight!

As a kid I remember watching a documentary called Scared Straight! A group of at risk kids who already had criminal records visited the famous Rahway State Prison to meet inmates who basically yelled and screamed at them for a few hours to scare them enough to straighten out their lives and avoid the same fate as the inmates. The conclusion was that most of the kids who participated didn’t reoffend.

So with that in mind, perhaps we can help you quit nail biting once and for all with our own scared straight reckoning by discussing and illustrating some of the grossest and most dangerous side effects of nail biting.

Dangers Of Nail Biting

Germs

Humans can be dirty. I recall many years ago hearing about a study that showed that unwrapped candies that were put in bowls near the entrance for customers to pick out as they left a restaurant contained amounts of feces and urine. People don’t wash their hands well enough if at all. Thus our nails, fingers and hands have germs on them and every time we put one in our mouth to bite them we expose ourselves to illness like the common cold, flu and worse.

Research has shown that salmonella and other bacteria like E. Coli can reside on and underneath our nails due to lack of proper washing. Biting our nails increases the chance we introduce these and other diseases into our body.

Teeth

The research is in and it’s not good for nail biters when it comes to our teeth all the way down to the root. Biting our nails can shift teeth. It can also lead to cracking and breaking of teeth in extreme cases.

Nail biters are also at greater risk for bruxism (grinding of teeth) which might also lead to teeth grinding after we quit a long-term nail biting habit as we subconsciously search for something else to chew on.

Research has also shown that nail biting can lead to the gum disease gingivitis.

Finally, if you have orthodontic braces, treatment time can take longer due to nail biting. Teeth are already under significant stress due to braces as they are shifted into place. The extra pressure you place on your teeth and root through nail biting can permanently damage the root of your teeth due to a phenomenon called root resorption.

Stomach

What effects can nail biting have on your stomach? The most common side effects relate to gastrointestinal infections which can cause diarrhea, cramps and stomach pain. Swallowing bitten nails isn’t healthy either especially if you use nail polish which is toxic and if your nails are dirty which they most likely are to some degree, you run the risk of introducing yet more bacteria and germs into your body.

While most side effects will likely go away on their own, they can knock you out for a day or two or even longer.

Infections

Nail biting and picking can lead to infections in the finger, nail bed, mouth and gums. Paronychia is the name of the infection that occurs in and around the nail and is caused by bacteria entering a cut in the finger often caused by nail and skin picking and biting. If you’ve ever seen a sore on your finger against the nail that is red, swollen, sore and possibly filled with pus, it’s likely an infection like paronychia. Most of the times it heals on its on within days but might require medical attention if the infection spreads.

And if you have a wart on your finger and bite your nails? You run the risk of infecting your mouth and lips and other body parts.

Hangnails

A hangnail isn’t a nail but is actually skin that hangs off the nail. They often cause pain and nail biters have a tendency to bite them off which as mentioned above introduces more germs into your mouth and increases the chances of infection.

Dermatophagia refers to the condition where a person obsessively bites the skin on their fingers and hands. Severe cases can lead to bleeding, scarring, and painful raw skin that not only looks bad but may not permanently heal if it’s done chronically.

Dental Bills

It has been reported widely that chronic nail biting can add $4,000 in dental bills over your lifetime. As mentioned above, nail biting runs the risk of seriously damaging your teeth down to the root and possibly pulling teeth out of alignment. Tooth cracking and breaking would of course increase dental bills not to mention causing you potentially permanent damage to your teeth.

Further, research has shown that nail biting can not only negatively affect treatment with orthodontic braces, it places further stress on the tooth and root which can cause further long term damage and increase the money you spend to fix it.

COVID-19

One of the things we’ve heard repeatedly since COVID-19 was first discussed is to avoid putting hands in our mouth and touching our face and eyes. We’ve been made aware that we introduce COVID to our bodies through the nose, lining of our mouth and even our eyes.

In this heightened era of sickness and illness, putting our fingers and hands in our mouth to bite our nails clearly increases the risk of introducing bacteria and disease into our body.

And if you find yourself switching your nail biting habit to more of a nail picking one, there are things you can do to specifically address that, too. Quitting completely is of course our best bet so don’t try to use nail picking as a fallback!